"Game One of the 2018 World Finals Was Probably the Worst Draft in League of Legends History" — Dylan Falco After G2's Loss to Vitality
Photo Credit: Riot Games
G2 are underperforming in the regular season — again. A loss to Vitality in week three continues a pattern that has become almost routine: slow regular splits, sharp playoff runs. Dylan Falco spoke with RFT.GG right after the defeat, touching on why First Stand went so well, what went wrong at previous international tournaments, whether this is G2's best shot at an international trophy, and the current state of the LEC.
First thoughts after the loss?
Definitely a bit disappointing. We haven't been playing very well this split so far. It's very important for us that we do well — we need a playoff slot. So definitely not too happy with our performances so far.
How have you been practicing since coming back from First Stand?
We definitely haven't had too many scrims since we got back from First Stand, just for scheduling reasons. It's pretty tough with the schedule. I definitely don't think we're at our absolute best form and that's definitely is part of it, but I think we've probably been good enough to perform better than we have so far.
How do you explain G2 underperforming so consistently in regular season, then stomping everyone basically in playoffs?
I think our drafting is usually a lot less refined in regular season.
The patches are a bit unexplored, maybe we're a bit more liberal in what we want to try, and the amount of practice we put in is usually a little bit less. Not that we consciously practice less, but we do have a conscious effort to ramp it up for playoffs every time.
So it's not surprising. But at the same time, we still do need to make the playoffs.
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Looking back at First Stand with some distance — what's the reason you finally took down LCK teams in such a strong fashion?
It's not rocket science. We went to the tournament in very good form, our players were peaking. Our ideas on how to draft around the specific meta at the tournament were very good. We got teams very well in both draft and play. That's really what it comes down to. And obviously things keep developing — we come back here and things are developing even further, and we still need to be on the ball for that.
In previous years, was it the drafts that weren't on point, or more of a randomness factor — player form on a given day?
It's always about conditions. How good form is the enemy team in, how good form is your team in, how do your drafts interact with each other? Sometimes you have a plan that might have worked versus one team at an international, but you face the one that counterpicks you and has the answers ready. Going into the bracket stage at last Worlds, we felt very confident we could make a very deep run with how we were playing. Didn't work out. I think we had two very bad drafts in our final Worlds series out of four. At First Stand I think we probably didn't have that. And those little things, or just performance on one day, can make the difference. At these tournaments you get one shot.
I asked Caps if he thought this roster was G2's best shot at winning an international trophy since 2020. He said it's hard to assess because you could have done better in previous years. Would you agree?
If we make it to the international tournaments, we definitely have a good shot this year. But I felt that last year as well, at least from our play at the World Championship.
I see these international tournaments usually as us coming in as slight underdogs, but it's never insurmountable.
And I think we've shown that with the amount of games we've taken from Korean and Chinese teams over the years.
Did you feel like underdogs at Worlds 2018 with Fnatic as well?
Yeah, for sure. There were teams like RNG that we struggled a lot against in both scrims and stage matches and lost to twice throughout the year. We were definitely underdogs. But — for example, the team we lost to in the 2018 final (Invictus Gaming), we had beaten them in the group stage 2-1. And we were scriming pretty well against them too. If you go back in history and change a couple of days and how they go, things could have looked different. And at the same time, G2 won an international tournament and made finals that they also could have performed worse in...
Any regrets when you look back at that period where EU was so close?
For the 2018 World Finals — this is a long time ago — I think our team was just in the absolute worst form it had been the entire year going into that final week. On that day, I really felt we had a very low chance to actually win. There were times we were playing much, much better, but not on that day.
That being said, if you compare to the importance of the match, game one of the 2018 Worlds Finals was probably the worst draft in League of Legends history.
If anyone goes and looks that one up, they will see. So I don't know if I regret it because I think it was a doomed day anyway. But that draft was very, very poor.
Photo Credit: Riot Games
BrokenBlade was mostly on tank duty at First Stand and it worked very well. Do you think you saw the limits of that playstyle in the final against BLG? Because he's been playing a lot more carry champions recently.
We don't really see it as far as tanks versus carries. We just try to find overall draft strategies that we think we will win with theoretically. Obviously those can overlap sometimes but we're not going into drafts saying 'we need a tank in this game.' If they pick champions that tanks are good against and we have BB on our team, we'd love to do it. But we're just trying to win the game, if that makes sense.
You've been in the league since 2017 — one of the biggest veterans in the coaching space. Do you still see yourself coaching for a long period of time?
I never really plan more than a year in advance. And if you're working in this industry, it's very hard to — rosters and teams and coaches change on a monthly or yearly basis. I don't have plans for the next couple of years. I have a contract with G2 for next year, so we'll see how that goes. But other than that, honestly no idea.
So, you’ve never thought about retiring for example?
While you're winning, the thoughts usually don't come to mind. It just feels good.
How do you assess the evolution of the LEC overall? Are we getting closer to the peak of 2018-2020?
We've had a very good group of new young players coming in over the past couple of years. Europe does have a huge League of Legends player base still.
If we can integrate these players on strong rosters with strong staffs, we can definitely compete internationally. We've had some rough years but it's definitely looking up this year. We're definitely stronger.
How much stronger — I guess we'll have to wait for MSI and Worlds to find out. But First Stand was pretty good.
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How do you see the top three in Europe? G2 and KC seem like the favourites, but Vitality are stepping up and MKOI look unconsistent. Is the top three quite open?
I would say us and KC probably have the most talent on our rosters — but that doesn't necessarily mean we'll perform and win, especially with Fearless best-of formats. A lot of stuff can happen. And then I think teams like Vitality, NAVI, MKOI, GIANTX — any of those teams have enough talent to qualify for Worlds if they get into good form with good drafts.
